The political world is feeling the shockwaves of the racist photo discovered on the 1984 medical school yearbook page of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who is being pressed – even by fellow Democrats – to resign.

Those with a sense for race relations in the state and the time when the yearbook was published are no less indignant, but their astonishment is tempered by a sense of history.

The photo, depicting a person in blackface next to another person in a Ku Klux Klan robe, is offensive. Unheard of? Not quite.

Northam has done himself no favors with his changing explanations, first apologizing for being in the picture and then saying he wasn’t in it at all but acknowledging he once wore blackface when imitating Michael Jackson in a dance contest.

But Alvin Tillery, director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University outside Chicago, said Virginia in the mid-1980s was wrestling with the competing forces of its past as a mecca of slave trading and the emerging political power of African Americans.

He called it “an upper-South state that was still holding on very much to the old Jim Crow politics, or trying to.’’

In 1967, the Supreme Court had banned all state laws prohibiting interracial marriage in the landmark Loving vs. Virginia case. Less than two decades later, in 1984, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson of South Carolina, two states to the south, made his first run at the Democratic presidential nomination, challenging the way the party operated.

Six years later, Douglas Wilder became Virginia’s first black governor.

“There was very active racial politics, a high degree of racial polarization between black and white in Virginia in 1984,’’ Tillery said. “It doesn’t surprise me that a man in his mid-20s would have been doing Halloween costumes in blackface and Ku Klux Klan uniforms because, frankly, we still have that problem today.’’

And today’s political climate has some parallels with the direction the country was taking at the time.

Kari Winter, professor of American studies at the University at Buffalo, said the civil rights and women’s rights gains of the two previous decades elicited a backlash that found support in the policies of Republican President Ronald Reagan, who served two terms from 1981-1989.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, here arriving to deliver his State of the Commonwealth address to the state legislature on Jan. 9, has so far resisted calls for his resignation.(Photo: Steve Helber, AP)

Reagan’s penchant for deregulation exacerbated economic inequality, Winter said, adding that his administration was no friend of women or minorities. She sees a similar bent, though in a much more caustic way, in current President Donald Trump and his desire to reverse the course taken by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

“What Reagan started has gotten to its apex with Donald Trump,’’ Winter said. “Reagan really set in motion the neocon backlash against civil rights, against women’s rights, that we’re seeing now with Trump in its worst and most ugly face.’’

Political scientists say the use of old slave imagery like blackface has always been known to be offensive – it’s typically meant as mockery – but it wasn’t until the 1970s and ’80s that it began to be openly questioned.

By the next decade, such symbols were clearly deemed unacceptable.

“We’ve had a very firm consensus that these things were objectionable for people in public life beginning in the 1990s,’’ Tillery said.

The offensive photo linked to Northam was published the same year he graduated from Eastern Virginia Medical School, in 1984. He was soon to be 25, but that doesn’t necessarily give him cover.

Winter said Northam, born and bred in Virginia, should have learned from his home state’s troubled history with race relations, even as early as elementary school. As a contemporary, she’s aghast at the poor judgment he displayed when he was already an adult.

“What Northam needs to do is stop excusing and defending himself and actually use this as a time to learn and grow,’’ Winter said. “You have to study history. Where did you come from that would make you think that putting on blackface and dressing up like the Ku Klux Klan is a good time? That is a culture that is deeply sick, deeply toxic, and Northam needs to confront it.’’

With Democrats billing themselves the party of inclusion and relying strongly on black and Latino voters, political observers question whether Northam can survive this scandal. So far, Northam has resisted calls to step aside by leading figures including the state’s two senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats.

Terri Jett, associate professor of political science at Butler University in Indianapolis, noted that even in a country deeply divided along partisan lines, there’s strong condemnation of Northam.

“We do have a lot of polarization, but more people than not find what he did intolerable and offensive,’’ she said. “He’s going to have to do something. And he keeps changing his story. It keeps getting worse and worse. Like, Michael Jackson, really?’’

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Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, center, and his wife Pam, watch as the casket of fallen Virginia State Trooper Lucas B. Dowell is carried to a waiting tactical vehicle during the funeral at the Chilhowie Christian Church in Chilhowie, Va., Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019. Dowell was killed in the line of duty earlier in the week. Pool photo by Steve Helber

A local newspaper the Richmond Free Press, with a front page featuring top Virginia state officials embroiled in controversies, sits for sale in a newsstand near the Virginia State Capitol, Feb. 9, 2019 in Richmond, Va. Virginia state politics are in a state of upheaval, with Governor Ralph Northam, State Attorney General Mark Herring, both Democrats, and Republican Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment involved with past uses associations with blackface and Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax, a Democrat, accused of sexual misconduct by two women. Drew Angerer, Getty Images

A Senate page hands out documents to lawmakers, including State Senator Mamie Locke, right, during a Senate session at the Virginia State Capitol, February 8, 2019 in Richmond, Va. Drew Angerer, Getty Images

Protestors rally against Virginia Governor Ralph Northam outside of the governors mansion in downtown Richmond, Va. on Feb. 4, 2019. Demonstrators are calling for the resignation of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, after a photo of two people, one dressed as a Klu Klux Klan member and a person in blackface were discovered on his personal page of his college yearbook. Northam said that while he had not appeared in the photo, "many actions that we rightfully recognize as abhorrent today were commonplace" and he was not surprised such material made its way to the yearbook. Logan Cyrus, AFP/Getty Images

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, with his wife Pam at his side, speaks at a press conference in the Executive Mansion at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019. Northam is under fire for a racial photo that appeared in his college yearbook. Steve Earley, The Virginian-Pilot via AP

Members of the media listen to a statement from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam speaks about a racist photo that appeared in his 1984 medical school yearbook, at the Executive Mansion in Richmond, Va. on Feb.2, 2019. Northam is facing pressure to resign from both Republicans and Democrats, after racist medical school yearbook pictures, showing him and another person in racist garb at a party. Dan Currier, EPA-EFE

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, left, gestures as his wife, Pam, listens during a news conference in the Governors Mansion at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019. Northam is under fire for a racial photo that appeared in his college yearbook. Steve Helber, AP

Demonstrators hold signs and chant outside the Governors office at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019. The demonstrators are calling for the resignation of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam after a 30 year old photo of him on his medical school yearbook photo was widely distributed Friday. Steve Helber, AP

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam prepares to address a news conference at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019. Northam made a statement and answered questions about the late term abortion bill that was killed in committee. Steve Helber, AP

This image shows Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s page in his 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook. The page shows a picture, at right, of a person in blackface and another wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood next to different pictures of the governor. It's unclear who the people in the picture are, but the rest of the page is filled with pictures of Northam and lists his undergraduate alma mater and other information about him. Eastern Virginia Medical School via AP

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam shakes hands as he leaves the chambers after he delivered his State of the Commonwealth address during a joint session of the Virginia Legislature in the House chambers at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. Steve Helber, AP

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam enters his conference room and heads for the podium, right, where he previewed several of his legislative proposals relating to elections during a media event at the State Capitol in Richmond, Va., Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. Bob Brown, Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam speaks during a news conference in the Crystal City neighborhood in Arlington, Va., Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018. Amazon, which has grown too big for its Seattle hometown, said it will split its much-anticipated second headquarters between New York and northern Virginia. Susan Walsh, AP